Josh Morgan Had Staph Infection
September 26, 2008 by David Kindervater
Filed under San Francisco 49ers
National Football League Blogcast, NFL Blogcast
I had high hopes for San Francisco 49ers rookie receiver Josh Morgan. He caught nine passes for 182 yards and a touchdown in the 49ers’ first two exhibition games. He looked like the second coming of T.O. to the Bay area. Then he apparently caught a staph infection from the infield dirt at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum because he sort of disappeared for a while. Josh started missing practice time and didn’t play in the Niners’ final preseason game. And the only information head coach Mike Nolan revealed was that Josh had an “undisclosed illness.” Josh has appeared in all three regular season games, but he’s clearly been limited and troubled by this illness.
Matt Maiocco from PressDemocrat.com (who has been covering the 49ers for 14 years) spoke with Josh a couple days ago and confirmed that he did have a staph infection. And now, reports have surfaced that teammate Keith Lewis has a staph infection. This matter has been kept private and I can certainly respect that, but it seems the league has a very serious matter on their hands if one of their fields is causing this type of illness. If this is a serious strain of staph — like MRSA — it’s very aggressive and potentially deadly. Poor Josh dropped 15 pounds battling with it, but it seems he is well on the road to recovery. So, I still have high hopes for not only his return to 100% health, but also to have a great rest of this 2008 season.
I sent an email to my media relations contact with the 49ers and have yet to hear anything back. I also asked 49ers.com blogger Chrissy Mauck about it. She responded almost immediately but told me the media relations staff would be the appropriate people to handle the matter. So, there’s still no “official” word from the team on exactly what is happening with these staph infections.
Source: PressDemocrat.com, Photo: Newscom
The Niners really seem to be in denial on this one. Head coach Mike Nolan was asked whether Josh Morgan has his weight back up after his staph infection. Coach Nolan’s response: “That was written and I don’t even know if it’s accurate to be honest with you. That’s all speculation with weight loss and this and that. That’s hearsay information. It didn’t come from (trainer Jeff Ferguson) did it?”
No, it came from Josh Morgan, who confirmed it was a staph infection that caused a 15-pound weight loss. There’s no news on this at 49ers.com or NFL.com. None of the “mainstream” networks seem have picked up on this story. Just the bloggers so far. Hmm.